Chicken Terrine

Thanksgiving is coming and I wanted to find a terrine that might be adaptable for the holiday table. Inspired by a few of the chicken terrines Chef Chris Eley has featured lately at The Goose, and armed with both Ruhlman's Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing and Reynaud's Terrine, I decided to give a poultry-based terrine a try. (I've had good success so far with pork and rabbit.) This one was pretty simple -- chicken, shallots, garlic, chives and nutmeg with eggs and cream to bind. Once again, I thank the gods for food processors.

While chopped shallots and garlic sauteed in oil, I put the diced uncooked chicken breast and eggs in the food process. I added grated nutmeg and cream. Then the shallots, chives, salt and pepper.

The recipe didn't call for lining the mold with anything, but I like the way it looks and was worried this recipe might be bland, so I used thin slices of smoky Black Forest ham. Chicken mixture goes into the lined mold, then into a water bath. After an hour, I brought it out of the oven and weighted it with a foil covered board and a panini press (about 8 lbs.)

This morning, it came out the mold very cleanly and I'm torn about the results. More after I've had a couple of days to process and gotten some second opinions. More pics in the flickr group.